Were Ilu is a town in north-central Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Located in the Debub Wollo Zone

Debub Wollo Zone

Debub Wollo is one of 10 Zones in the Ethiopian Amhara Region. It acquired its name from the former province of Wollo.Debub Wollo is bordered on the south by Semien Shewa and the Oromia Region, on the west by Mirab Gojjam, on the northwest by Debub Gondar, on the north by Semien Wollo and on the...

 of the Amhara Region

Amhara Region

Amhara is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as Region 3, its capital is Bahir Dar....

, this town has a latitude and longitude of 10°36′N 39°26′E. From the 1870s, Were Ilu had a Thursday market.

The Medhane Alem church, dating from at least from the early 1900s, is a notable local landmark. Empress Zewditu was born at Were Ilu, and Ras Habte Maryam was buried there.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

 in 2005, this town has an estimated total population of 10,062 of whom 4,942 were men and 5,120 were women. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 5,809 of whom 2,600 were males and 3,209 were females. It is the largest of three towns in Were Ilu

Were Ilu (woreda)

Were Ilu is one of the 105 woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debub Wollo Zone, Were Ilu is bordered on the southwest by Jama, on the west by Kelala, on the northwest by Legambo, on the north by Dessie Zuria, on the east by the Oromia Zone, and on the southeast by the Wanchet...

 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.

History

While still ruler of Shewa

Shewa

Shewa is a historical region of Ethiopia, formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire...

, Menelik II had a ketamma (or fortified camp) built at Were Ilu and Enewari in 1868 to guard his northern frontier and pacify the Wollo Oromo, who were his neighbors. In September of the following year, after Menelik had recaptured Maqdala, the Wollo chiefs came to Were Ilu at the Mesqel feast to make formal submission and take an oath of fealty

Fealty

An oath of fealty, from the Latin fidelitas , is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another. Typically the oath is made upon a religious object such as a Bible or saint's relic, often contained within an altar, thus binding the oath-taker before God.In medieval Europe, fealty was sworn between...

 to the king and to Muhammad Ali

Mikael of Wollo

Mikael of Wollo , born Mohammed Ali, was an army commander and a member of the nobility of the Ethiopian Empire. He was the father of the "uncrowned" Emperor Iyasu V. He changed his name to Mikael upon converting to Christianity.- Life :Mohammed Ali, an Oromo, was born in Wollo...

, whom Menelik had appointed governor of Wollo.

During the 1870s, Menelik resided at Were Ilu for extended periods. However, while the ruler of Shewa campaigned in Gojjam

Gojjam

Gojjam was a kingdom in the north-western part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Marqos. This region is distinctive for lying entirely within the bend of the Abbay River from its outflow from Lake Tana to the Sudan...

 in early 1877, a rebellion caused by the intrigues of his consort Baffana led to Were Ilu being sacked and burned, and forced Menelik to return to Shewa. Emperor Yohannes IV

Yohannes IV of Ethiopia

Yohannes IV , born Lij Kassay Mercha Ge'ez, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1872 until his death.-Early life:...

 met with Menelik twice at Were Ilu: the first time in 1878 to accept his fealty; and a second time in 1882 to discipline him for disturbing the peace of Yohannes' realm by fighting with Negus

Negus

Negus is a title in Ge'ez, Tigrinya, Tigre and Amharic, used for a king and at times also a vassal ruler in pre-1974 Ethiopia and pre-1890 Eritrea. It is subsequently used to translate the word "king" in Biblical and other literature...

 Tekle Haymanot

Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam

Tekle Haymanot Tessemma, also Adal Tessemma, Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and Tekle Haimanot of Gojjam, was an army commander and a member of the nobility of the Ethiopian Empire.- Biography :...

 the Battle of Embabo

Battle of Embabo

The Battle of Embabo was fought 6 June 1882, between the Shewan forces of Negus Menelik II and the Gojjame forces of Negus Tekle Haymanot. The forces fought to gain control over the Oromia Region south of the Gibe River. The Gojjame forces under Tekle Haymanot were defeated...

.

After Menelik became Emperor of Ethiopia

Emperor of Ethiopia

The Emperor of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1974. The Emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country...

 and moved his capital south to Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

, Were Ilu declined somewhat in importance. Writing in the 1890s, Augustus B. Wylde described the Were Ilu market, held on Saturdays, as very large in size, with petty European goods and locally made cloth available; upon visiting its market, he was impressed by the large piles of woolen goods for sale there, declaring that it "may be called the Bradford of Abyssinia". In 1895 Were Ilu became a supply dump, where the emperor stored about one and a half million cartridges and thousands of guns, as well as setting up numerous granaries, and it served as an organizing point for Menelik's army at the beginning of the First Italo-Abyssinian War

First Italo-Abyssinian War

The First Italo-Ethiopian War was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from 1895 to 1896. Ethiopia's military victory over Italy secured it the distinction of being the only African nation to successfully resist European colonialism with a decisive show of force.-Background:On March 25, 1889, the...

. Although its location led to the telegraph line the Italians constructed between 1902 and 1904 from Asmara

Asmara

Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...

 south to Addis Ababa passing through the town and giving it a local telegraph office, Were Ilu was connected north to Molale by only a trail as late as 1962. Branches of the telegraph line led from Were Ilu east to Ankober

Ankober

Ankober is a town in central Ethiopia and one of the capitals of the former kingdom of Shewa. Located in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region, Ankober is perched on the eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian Highlands 40 kilometers to the east of Debre Birhan, with a latitude and longitude of ,...

 and west to Gondar

Gondar

Gondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder Province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar...

 through Debre Tabor

Debre Tabor

Debre Tabor is a town and a woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana, this historic town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2706 meters above...

.

On 28 March 1990, during the Ethiopian Civil War

Ethiopian Civil War

The Ethiopian Civil War began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front , a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991. The war overlapped other Cold War...

, an aerial attack on Were Ilu by Derg

Derg

The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

 airplanes destroyed a grain stockpile, but inflicted no casualties.

In June 2002, some people were relocated from Were Ilu, north to Badme

Badme

Badme is a town in the Horn of Africa and the focus of a territorial dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is claimed by both Eritrea, which considers Badme to be a part of Gash-Barka Zone, and Ethiopia, which considers Badme part of the Mirabawi Zone of the Tigray Region. This dispute was the...

. This was part of a pilot project in which volunteers were relocated from the crowded Ethiopian highlands

Ethiopian Highlands

The Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, Eritrea , and northern Somalia in the Horn of Africa...

to less crowded parts of the country.